While I was in Lincoln a few weeks back I had the opportunity to hang out with a couple of guys who serve in two different ministry contexts there in the city.  The first was a guy in his 50s who does Christian counseling.  The second was the 20s and  30s pastor (in his late 20s or early 30s himself) at a mega church that meets out towards the edge of town.  In meeting with these two guys I posed basically the same question to them and got two radically different answers.

The question was along the lines of: What is the general mentality of the unreached in Lincoln?  In other words, if 2 Pillars Church is going to be on mission to reach the unreached for Christ, what should that look like?

The older gentlemen response was that “people just don’t think.”  His experience has been that people he encounters simply go through life without ever thinking that much about eternal matters.  The result that he sees is people that show up in his office who have had a pretty normal life, never had too much trouble, and then wham-o — tragedy strikes, suffering sets in and they’ve got nothing in their personal, moral arsenal to deal with it.  They blow up.  They’ve been blind-sided and they don’t have a clue what to do with the pieces of their life that are crumbling to the ground.  His perspective was that people simply don’t stop to think about God until they’re desperate.  His solution was that we need to get people to *think* before their lives blow up.

The younger guy’s response, on the contrary, was that the unreached actually do have questions but that they simply see the church as not having the answers.  His experience has been that people really *do think* and they really do contemplate God and things eternal, but that they simply are put off by churches that seem to have all the right answers to all the wrong questions.  Likewise he sees an attitude among young unbelievers that loses respect for churches that don’t engage them where they are with the questions they have (think, “come to my church and I’ll show you all the answers” vs. “meet me at the pub and we’ll talk about it”).

Two perspectives.

Which is right?

The answer is both.  There are certainly people that don’t slow down to contemplate; don’t stop while alive to think about life after death; and don’t really think there is any use for God in their life until the crap hits the fan and they’ve got no where else to turn.  But the other camp is out there too.  People (and young people in particular) are also asking questions and seeking answers.  They long to be a part of something bigger than themselves and they have notions that it has something to do with God.  The problem is they’ve got lots of questions.  What do they do with the exclusive claims of Christianity?  Why does God let bad things happen to good people?  How would I go about getting myself right before the Creator of the Universe if he is so holy?  Why does there appear to be so much disunity in the Church if Jesus told us to love one another?  If I were to become a Christian, what would I have to give up?

You see, it’s both.  Both groups exist and both have to be ministered too.  My own take is that people start off in their 20s and 30s with a lot of questions and when they don’t get answered they end up giving up on those questions on heading their own way.  Having given up on God, they ignore him the rest of their life until that life blows up.

But what if it didn’t have to go down that way?  What if as a church we met both of these groups where they are?  What if instead of showing up with all the right answers to all the wrong questions, we shut up and listened to the questions people actually have and struggle with?  What if we entered into their lives and walked the path with them a little?  What if instead of requiring them to come to church to get their answers, we went to them to hear their questions?  Would there be fewer people that show up in the counseling office in their 40s with their life blown to pieces?

Jesus said, “Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.”

When people are in the storm being washed about because they built their house on sand, let’s help them find solid ground.  But when people are on the beach, looking around for a tan and a place to build – let’s hear them out and let’s show them how the rock of Christ is the foundation they need.  Let’s let them ask their hard questions and let’s enter their lives to see where those questions are coming from.  Let’s not just throw books at them and scurry them on their way, but let’s do life with them and help them to see that the Gospel is the answer to every question.